2011 Los Angeles Dodgers Season Review: Second Base

On the back-end of a two-year deal, Jamey Carroll put up another solid season as a super-utility man, and all at the baseball old age of 37. Though his numbers dipped across the board from what was the second best season of his career, he still contributed 2.2 WAR while primarily playing second.

In 146 games and 510 plate appearances, Carroll put up a .290/.359/.347 line with a .321 wOBA and 104 wRC+ while walking in 10% of his trips to the plate, as compared with just over 11% of his appearances ending in a strikeout.

Again, his 2010 numbers were better (.291/.379/.339, .329 wOBA, 12.3 BB%, 2.5 WAR) with the notable exception that Jamey cut down on his whiffs this past season and played worse defense (11.4 UZR/150 at second in 2010, down considerably in 2011 at -8.0 in 330 more innings). However, for a guy who played so much due to injury and ineptitude, he was yet again one of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal year.

Carroll was not traded so as to mentor Dee Gordon, and it would make sense to bring the veteran back on a one-year deal to play rover and continue his mentoring duties. Not that I particularly buy that a mentor is necessary for a young player, but if it means less playing time for Juan Uribe, I’m all for it. After all, a good way to improve the team is to stop playing players like Uribe. Carroll’s OBP in 81 games at second was .355; I sincerely doubt Ewribe could pull off that feat.

I don’t feel it’s necessary to re-hash too much of my previous spiel on Miles that can be found in my Third Base Season Review post, so I’ll just give his numbers as a second baseman in 2011, a position which he occupied for 72 games.

.288/.302/.362/.664 and a UZR/150 of 0.2 in over 500 innings.

Sigh? Sigh.

Also-Rans

Five other Dodgers saw time at second base, led by Uribe and Justin Sellers. Ivan DeJesus was given just a brief tryout, and with his exclusion from the September call-ups in 2011, his time as a viable option with the Dodgers is probably over. Which is a shame, because the man has shown a great ability to draw a walk during the vast majority of his minor league career, at least prior to his injury.

I could live with Sellers as a one-year fill-in, but the career minor leaguer is nothing more than that: filler. On the bright side, Sellers did display good leather, particularly at short and third, and was a plus at all three positions on the defensive side of things.